Monday, 22 June 2015

Quiltmaking by Hand

It often happens that as summer arrives, I find myself sewing less and gardening more. It doesn't mean I'm not as enthusiastic about my hobby. Summer is just so short, and I want to spend as much time possible outdoors. Summer time can also be perfect for hand sewing or knitting outside on the deck; once the garden is planted, taken care of, and the yard work is done of course.

I thought I would share an ongoing project I've been working on for a while. Right now I'll call it my Snowbirds Quilt. This is from a pattern by Jinny Beyer called Crayon Box. The fabrics need to be arranged in light, medium and dark value colours. The way the different values are arranged creates an optical illusion, a three-dimensional effect that I find intriguing.

I used a jelly roll of a batik fabric line I liked called Snowbirds. After cutting out my 60-degree diamonds, I drew in the seam lines with a pencil on the light colours and a white quilt pencil on the dark colours. I really enjoy sewing theses diamonds together! Hand piecing gives much more flexibility with all those seam allowances. I'm not sure how I would sew this block on the machine. It seems simpler to sew it by hand. I learned a lot from Jinny Beyer's book Quiltmaking By Hand. This is an awesome book if you're interested in hand piecing or hand quilting.

This is the thread that I'm using for piecing. It's smooth, strong 100% cotton. It's not too thin or too thick and it grips the fabric securely.

Here's what the block looks like.

Here is the back showing the seam allowances. There's definitely a system of the direction I pressed each seam allowance. This block needs to be re-pressed but you get the idea.

I have quite a few more blocks to make. Once I make it a size I like I will start to make the edge blocks. I think I would like to hand quilt it using wool batting. I couldn't imagine machine quilting something I spent months hand piecing.

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About Me

Welcome to my blog where I endeavour to document my adventures in sewing! There may also be some quilting and the occasional knitting project here and there. I hope to inspire others to embrace this rewarding hobby or just get into the sewing room and sew something new. It's been an adventure so far. I hope you join me!